Tag Archives: Gimbal

GoPro has released 3 new cameras including the Hero 7 Black which is now the flagship product for the company. The key feature is HyperSmooth which is a predictive stabilization technology based on scene analysis and sensor telemetry to accurately anticipate motion and correct the image to generate a gimbal-like smooth appearance to the video. When you see the footage it is clear it is a huge improvement compared to even the Hero 6 Black which had a pretty good stabilizer.

The Stabilization, however, is limited to 4k 30/60p and other resolutions below 120p but anything above 120fps will use the previous stabilization feature which is not predictive and have no stabilization support at all at 1080p 240fps which is the highest slow motion mode. No 480fps or other higher fps settings are available as the camera uses both the same Hero 6 Black sensor and the same GP1 system chip for this new camera.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←

One of the few under the radar products that caught our attention is the Removu K1 all in one stabilized three axis gimbal camera system which has an included LCD screen and 4+ hours of battery life. It has advanced features for creating several kinds of moves, time lapse, panning motion and crane-like shots.

It also includes three high frame rate modes to spice up the package. It can shoot 1080p 120fps with GoPro Hero 5-6 like quality and 720p 240fps which we have yet to see due to a lack of samples. However, for a reasonable price of $429 USD this ultra-portable stabilized camera system might be the best option for vloggers on the move. The 4k 30p quality is pretty respectable in itself with similar quality to the Hero 5 Black as they use similar components.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←

Panasonic has released an updated firmware that claims to fix some instability issues while recording video at higher frame rates using VFR. The Firmware Version 2.2 Available here aims to reduce or eliminate instances where the camera could stop recording video or in some instances refuse to record in VFR mode. Some users have reported rare incidents of corrupted files, recording stops and some camera lockups that could be related to the VFR function buffer and write to SD card procedure. It will be a matter of testing this new firmware to see if it resolves these issues.

In some instances, it was narrowed down to slow SD cards that could not keep up with the data rates necessary or cards that had internal fragmentation that could cause corruption on clips. Glad to see Panasonic addressing this issue. The camera also adds a new menu item for customizing the function button on the new Leica H-ES200 200mm 2.8 lens to different parameters. Firmware Link!→ Continue Reading Full Post ←

DJI has announced the Zenmuse X7 camera for the Inspire 2 Professional Drone. The camera shoots in Cinema DNG RAW which allows for the utmost quality for the demanding videographer with up to 60fps at 3.9k resolution. Interestingly it does not support 4k at that frame rate as probably there is a hardware limitation for that last few rows of pixels to be saved at that quality.

Of note is the 4k DCI spec up to 30p and ability to shoot and save in Apple ProRes in 4k and 2k with more option in H.264 and the newer H.265 codecs. The biggest deal, however, is the ability to shoot 6k in DNG format at 6K: 6016×3200, 23.976/24/25/29.97/30p, 12-bit, full FOV. This is a first for a drone camera of this size and should be the ideal format for ultra resolution seekers.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←

It is no secret that GoPro had a pretty bad 2016 in terms of sales performance and the Karma Gate battery off incident. The company is loosing money but still shows signs of life. In the 4th quarter of 2016 GoPro was profitable on a non-GAAP basis with income of $42 million. With the stock closing price today of $8.90, a far cry from the nearly $90 it was worth in October 2014, there needs to be a change of epic proportions if the company is expected to remain viable.

There are threats from new technologies like AR, VR and Snapchat Glasses among others that threaten to impede the company going forward. How can a camera company evolve overnight to survive in such a market. We believe the answer is by innovating it’s way out of the whirlpool that it finds itself in.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←

There has been extreme excitement over the last month for both the GoPro Karma Drone and the DJI Mavic Pro being the first truly portable and collapsible drones that offer professional features and a quality camera. However when we focus on the video quality it is clear that by several measures the Mavic Pro seems to be a step down compared to the DJI Phantom 4 and here lies the main issue between these two competing platforms.

GoPro has not been a quality champ ever since the DJI Phantom 3 came out. The Hero Camera with much more wide angle distortion and less sharpness was a letdown by being pretty much the same since the last refresh of the GoPro Hero 3+ several years ago. The GoPro way has been footprint reduction and feature addition instead of image quality hikes.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←